Class Noteshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education
Get behind the most interesting education stories, research and trends with the Express-News education reporters.Mon, 16 Nov 2015 19:25:40 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1UT Health Science Center refutes cost increase rankinghttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2013/06/ut-health-science-center-refutes-cost-increase-ranking/
Sat, 29 Jun 2013 01:19:03 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=2020The U.S. Department of Education has crunched numbers on the most expensive and fastest rising tuition rates in the land, but when it comes to their calculation of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio cost increases, the school says the figures are wrong.

One of the rankings on the College Affordability and Transparency Center released Thursday is a list of how fast college costs are going up. Among public four-year institutions, the health science center is listed as having the third greatest increase — 55 percent.

The site lists tuition as increasing from $4,481 in 2009-10 to $6,944 in 2011-12, but Will Sansom, a spokesman for the school, said in an email that the figures are incorrect because of a reporting error.

“Specifically, for one of our undergraduate programs that enrolls fewer than 10 full-time, first-time students, the Health Science Center reported a change in tuition and fees from $4,481 in 2009-2010 to $6,944 in 2011-2012,” he said. “In actuality, the program costs increased 8.7 percent, from $6,389 in 2009-2010 to $6,944 in 2011-2012.”

He said the data for the health science center, which mostly enrolls professional graduate students, “is skewed by a few first-time students in a single program, which is our paramedic training program.” The health science center’s medical and dental schools, for instance, have been ranked among the most affordable in the country.

In 2011, the school refuted a similar ranking when the USDOE site incorrectly listed it as charging the highest “net price” for freshmen. At the time, President William Henrich said the school did not enroll freshmen. An Education Department spokeswoman said that data had been self-reported by the universities.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin is busy showing off his English skills, more University of Texas at San Antonio students could soon be honing their advanced Russian speaking skills online.

This week the University of Texas at Arlington and UTSA announced a grant of about $205,000 from the UT System’s Institute for Transformational Learning, which will help the two universities create a language telecollaboration. The partnership aims to enroll more students in languages critical to government and business, like Russian, but which aren’t taught as often, according to a university news release.

“It shows how we can leverage technology and available faculty expertise at both universities to provide an expanded educational opportunity to our students,” said Sunay Palsole, UTSA associate vice provost for education technology, in a prepared statement.

Both schools have classrooms with digital videoconferencing capabilities and, starting this fall, both will use the Blackboard Learn platform to provide the content either live or at the same time, according to the news release.

UTSA will offer beginning Japanese to UTA. UTA will return the favor with Portuguese. Later on, students at both universities may be able to take intermediate and advanced Russian online. Further down the road, the telecollaboration may include Arabic, Chinese and Korean.

UTSA already offers a minor in Russian, elementary and intermediate Arabic, Chinese and Japanese courses, and a noncredit intermediate and advanced level Korean language and culture class, according to a UTSA spokeswoman.

In the meantime, watch Putin speak in English as he pitches his case for the Russian city Ekaterinburg to host the World Expo 2020 below:

– Jennifer R. Lloyd

]]>Sen. Patrick continues scrutiny of state curriculum CSCOPEhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2013/06/sen-patrick-continues-scrutiny-of-state-curriculum-cscope/
Wed, 05 Jun 2013 01:05:21 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=2003Given posts on Texas Senator Dan Patrick’s Facebook page this weekend, it’s safe to say that the Houston Republican really does not like CSCOPE, the state-sanctioned set of lesson plans that a majority of school districts use that was quashed in a deal he brokered during the recent Legislative session.

On Sunday, Patrick wrote:

Regarding CSCOPE lesson plans. Several of you commented that your district or your school has made a statement that they are continuing with the lesson plans. There are 877 CSCOPE client districts. We cannot know what each is doing every day, but if you have children in the district you can alert us. There is always the possibility a principle or a district would violate the agreement, but if we know about it we will take action.

I believe the CSCOPE Board intends to honor the agreement. They have notified all of their districts their contract to use the material ends after the 90 contract notice expires in August. But if a region, district, or school, violates the agreement we will follow up as I’m sure [Attorney General Greg Abbott] will as well.

In recent months, Patrick was at the forefront of the opposition to CSCOPE, in use by area districts that include Alamo Heights, Edgewood, Lackland and Somerset ISDs.

The State Board of Education and TEA stepped in to say they would also scrutinize the curriculum. But by the time Senate Bill 1406 passed, the CSCOPE board that supplies the lesson plans voted to kill their own creation and forbid its use, while pointedly asking lawmakers to keep the regional Educational Service Centers open until 2019.

As school districts look for new lesson plans to replace CSCOPE. Patrick has suggested they seek them from larger districts that can afford a curriculum director or look for private vendors.

-Francisco Vara-Orta

]]>Two Express-News writers win School Bell awardshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2013/05/two-express-news-writers-win-school-bell-awards/
Tue, 07 May 2013 14:15:32 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1995The Texas State Teachers Association had to mail Staff Writer Francisco Vara-Orta and columnist Ricardo Pimentel their first School Bell awards, given for “excellence in coverage of public education,” since they couldn’t make it to the association’s annual conference in Houston on April 12.

Vara-Orta won the Outstanding Feature Story category for an analysis of teacher turnover among local school districts, which can be found here.

It was the third year in a row a member of the Express-News education reporting team won the award, and his third competitive win in the past year for education reporting from each of the state’s three largest teacher groups– the others were the Silver Apple Award from the Texas Classroom Teachers Association and the Alafair Hammett Media Award from the Association of Texas Professional Educators for outstanding coverage of public education.

Vara-Orta has been a reporter at the Express-News since February 2011 and has worked at the Austin Business Journal, the Los Angeles Business Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Austin American-Statesman, Laredo Morning Times and La Prensa, a bilingual newspaper in San Antonio.

– Henry Krausse

]]>Student says RFID tags made her sickhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2013/03/student-says-rfid-tags-made-her-sick/
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:39:51 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1987A student who sued the Northside Independent School District last year after refusing to wear a school identification badge containing an electronic tracking chip told legislators Tuesday that she became ill because of radiation from the tags in other students’ IDs.

“It’s like being in an X-ray machine for eight hours,” Andrea Hernandez said. “It’s going to make you sick.”

Northside is piloting a program at Jay and at Jones Middle School that aims to increase district revenues by using “radio frequency identification” or RFID technology to better pinpoint student attendance. It offered to let Hernandez carry a similar badge with no embedded chip, but she declined and was subsequently transferred to another high school, at which point she and her father sued.

Hernandez protested the program on religious grounds, saying the tags are akin to the “mark of the beast” as described in the Bible, but on Tuesday she also told members of the state’s House Committee on Public Education that she believed radiation from the tags made her sick.

However, Michael Wade, whose company manufactures the tags, said they do not produce any radiation.

“None at all,” he said.

Wade and Hernandez were providing public testimony on House Bill 101, which would allow parents to opt out of RFID programs and would require school boards to approve such programs before they are implemented.

The Northside board approved the technology last summer and district officials have said they would consider opt out requests on a case-by-case basis.

No action was taken on the bill.

]]>UT Presidents make case for Valley university billhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2013/03/ut-presidents-make-case-for-valley-university-bill/
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:39:52 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1975Two presidents of University of Texas institutions in the Rio Grande Valley testified with some passion for a bill to create a new umbrella university there, after which the Senate Higher Education Committee voted Wednesday morning to move the bill forward.

“Once in a while we get a chance to be part of some historical moment personally and more importantly collectively, and I think that’s what we have the chance to do today,” said UT Brownsville President Juliet Garcia, adding that the Valley universities have been dreaming of having access to public endowment money, called the Permanent University Fund, for years.

If two-thirds of both chambers approve the proposal, that could become a reality.

UT-Pan American President Robert Nelsen told senators that his university has far fewer square feet per student than other state schools because it has not had access to PUF money.

He added that the need for the consolidated Valley university goes beyond bricks-and-mortar to address the education and healthcare needs of the region, saying his wife had waited more than six hours to see a doctor at one point.

Nelsen played off the fast-growing region’s nickname, “the Magic Valley,” saying, “the magic in the Valley is the people and we have a chance to make a difference in their lives.”

“If we don’t get it right in South Texas, we don’t get it right in the nation and we certainly don’t get it right in the state,” he said.

– Jennifer R. Lloyd

]]>UTSA makes conversation for a causehttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2013/02/utsa-makes-conversation-for-a-cause/
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:33:09 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1963Talking about topics from tequila and dog training to education paid off for the University of Texas at San Antonio Honors College on Tuesday night.

The college’s 13th annual Great Conversation! fundraiser garnered $161,765 for scholarships, research stipends and other learning initiatives, according to a university news release.

Community members and 18 honors students discussed questions such as:

What Makes Vincent Vincent van Gogh So Famous?

The San Antonio Missions: What Would a World Heritage Site Mean for the City?

Catch the Wind: How to Find the Best Sailing Spots

Beer, BBQ, and a Bus: Texas Tailgating Secrets

“UTSA has extremely generous donors,” said sociology professor Harriett Romo, according to the release. Romo led an education discussion. “They have seen the impact that UTSA Honors students are making around the country and they are investing in UTSA to continue that progress.”

Vara-Orta won in the category for print outlets with circulations greater than 50,000 for work that “promotes understanding of teachers and Texas public schools and improves communication between educators and the community,” according to the association.

“I’m honored that my work at the San Antonio Express-News was selected for this award, and I will share it with my team,” Vara-Orta told the association. “I’m only able to do the work I do because of them.”

The association also named Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, its 2012-2013 Friend of Education in the public official category for his efforts during the 2011 legislative session.

“Our investments in education represent our commitment to the future of Texas,” said Martinez Fischer in a news release, calling for a reversal of a trend toward larger class sizes that he blamed on Republican lawmakers who “have chosen to balance the budget on the backs of students and teachers.”

Workers labor on the new residence, commercial and parking project at San Antonio College on Oct. 19. Photo by Billy Calzada/Express-News

Alamo Colleges officials initially said that its students, faculty and staff would be given rental preference at the Tobin Lofts at San Antonio College ahead of students from other schools, but this preference is not yet part of the rental policy, officials said this month.

As of last week, more than 50 SAC students had already applied through the on-campus leasing office to live at the complex under construction along North Main Avenue, said Scott Duckett, chief operating officer of Austin-based Campus Advantage, which is managing the Tobin Lofts. The first phase is slated to open in August 2013.

Duckett said there is no hierarchy in place right now that would give Alamo Colleges students an advantage over those enrolled elsewhere.

The company has also had discussions with student groups and other colleges near SAC, which could sign group leases for a large number of beds, he said.

Of the 552-bed housing project along North Main Avenue, Duckett said about 480 beds will open in the first phase. Those will include four-bedroom, two-bath apartments renting for $525 per bed and four-bedroom, four-bath apartments renting for $575 per bed, he said. The price tag includes furnishings, utilities, internet and cable.

“We are obviously trying to fill the building with SAC students but, right now, we’re trying to get a sense of what the overall demand is, where it’s going to come from,” Duckett said. “Next year will be a different situation because we’ll have a better sense of the true demand.”

John Strybos, Alamo Colleges’ associate vice chancellor of facilities, said that preference for Alamo Colleges students is expressed by placing the leasing office on SAC and marketing heavily to educate students there about the option.

“At the end of the day, we want every single bed rented out all the time. … If somebody is writing a check, we don’t really care where the check comes from.” Strybos said. “Ideally, if there is enough demand we can build more.”

To find out more, here is a full story about the apartment complex and a story about the district’s possible mixed-use development at the old Playland Park site.

– Jennifer R. Lloyd

]]>Charter school trustees in business with districtshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/11/charter-school-trustees-in-business-with-districts/
Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:29:56 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1927Reporter Anne Ryman reported in the Arizona Republic on Sunday about the many ways charter school leaders in that state have benefited from business deals with the taxpayer-funded schools.

Great Hearts Texas President Peter Bezanson at a September community meeting in San Antonio.

Included in the story were two Arizona-based charter schools – BASIS Schools and Great Hearts Academies – that just last week received charters from the State Board of Education to expand their operations to San Antonio.

Ryman’s story described how the non-profit Great Hearts Academies spent nearly $1 million since July 2009 on textbook purchases from a company run by Great Hearts board member Daniel Sauer.

It went on to explain that BASIS Schools contracts for nearly all its goods and services with a for-profit company owned by school district founders Michael and Olga Block. Michael Block remains on the BASIS board but told the Arizona Republic he refrains from voting on matters related to his company.

One year, BASIS paid the Block-owned company $9.8 million, Ryman reported, or about 72 percent of the school district’s total spending that year.

In Arizona, these transactions appeared to be perfectly legal, but what about in Texas?

TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said “there’s nothing in the law” to prohibit a Texas charter from purchasing goods or services from board members.

However, some rules apply. For instance, Culbertson said the districts are required to disclose accounting records to the state.

Both Great Hearts and BASIS hope to open their first Texas schools in San Antonio next year.

]]>A&M-San Antonio blunder accidentally elects state senatorhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/10/am-san-antonio-blunder-accidentally-elects-state-senator/
Thu, 11 Oct 2012 23:29:36 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1919Dr. Donna Campbell, a Republican candidate for the state Senate District 25 race, received a pre-election boost in a news release from Texas A&M University-San Antonio on Thursday.

The release advertised “State Senator Donna Campbell” as one of several dignitaries, such as First Lady of Texas Anita Perry, expected to attend an Oct. 16 university foundation scholarship fundraising luncheon. They only left out one word — ‘candidate.’

Campbell, a Tea Party candidate from New Braunfels, defeated incumbent Jeff Wentworth in a Republican primary runoff but will still face Democrat John Courage of San Antonio in the general election.

Jillian Reddish, the member of the university’s communications team who drafted the release, said the error was a typo and that she’d take steps to rectify the mistake immediately.

“That was very regrettable, a pure error,” she said.

Soon after the Express-News contacted the university about the error, they sent out an updated press release that removed the reference to Campbell entirely.

Members of the University of Texas at Austin Longhorn Band perform during the Fiesta Flambeau Parade Saturday April 16, 2011. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS)

The U.S. News & World Report released its annual best colleges list today and Texas can claim two of the top 50 national universities — Rice University in Houston and the University of Texas at Austin.

Unsurprisingly, elite private schools took the top spots — Harvard University (tied for No. 1), Princeton University (tied for No. 1), Yale University (No. 3), Columbia University (tied for No. 4) and the University of Chicago (tied for No. 4).

Members of the University of Texas at Austin Longhorn Band perform during the Fiesta Flambeau Parade Saturday April 16, 2011. (PHOTO BY EDWARD A. ORNELAS)

U.S. News compared the universities by more than a dozen criteria including freshman retention rates, graduation rates, percentage of full-time faculty and alumni giving.

Rice University tied the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee for No. 17.

At No. 46, UT Austin tied Pennsylvania State University – University Park, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, the University of Washington and Yeshiva University in New York.

Trinity University was ranked the top regional university in the West. U.S. News qualified regional universities as those with “a full range of undergraduate majors and master’s programs” but fewer doctoral programs.

In the same regional university ranking, St. Mary’s University tied for the No. 20 spot and Texas State University-San Marcos tied for No. 46. The University of the Incarnate Word tied for No. 58.

The Best Colleges 2013 guidebook hits newsstands Sept. 18.

]]>Castro’s record on education under attackhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/09/castros-record-on-education-under-attack/
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/09/castros-record-on-education-under-attack/#commentsThu, 06 Sep 2012 17:59:09 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1896Mayor Julian Castro’s touting of education at his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention attracted criticism of his local record on education from conservative pundits.

Castro is currently in the throes of campaigning for a sales tax increase to fund more pre-K programs in San Antonio, which he mentioned in his nationally televised speech Tuesday night.

Annual rankings by Children at Risk, a Houston-based nonprofit, find that San Antonio schools continue to perform the worst among schools in Texas’s large cities. The most recent assessment placed only 13 percent of the area’s schools in the top tier and put 37 percent in the lowest-performing group. By contrast, 32 percent of schools in Dallas and Houston, and 35 percent in Austin, qualified as “top tier.” The research also found that average reading and math scores declined slightly citywide from the previous year.

These stats reflect the 2010-11 school year, which was Castro’s second year in office. Most national research suggests it takes five to seven years to turn around a district’s worst schools. Attempts by some of the worst-performing schools in inner-city San Antonio to engineer a turnaround are ongoing; similar efforts at other districts in the U.S. are shaky.

It should surprise few in San Antonio that the observers at Children At Risk didn’t blame Castro or any previous mayor for lagging school performance here. They didn’t blame any particular politican. The more obvious factors are poverty, tumult in school district leadership (and Bexar County has 16 school districts where tumult is possible), and iffy funding. The $5.4 billion cut from public education by the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature last year has already led to the loss of thousands of jobs and the growth of class sizes.

The Legislature, school boards and school administrators have far more impact on education than a mayor who can use his bully pulpit to encourage change but is otherwise in a weak position in a council-city manager form of government.

The conservative critics missed the bully pulpit aspect completely. As mayor, Castro has gone beyond lip service to education, venturing at some risk into San Antonio’s school board politics.

Last year, he endorsed two candidates for San Antonio ISD’s school board. One, Patti Radle, won; the other, Joy McGhee, lost to the incumbent. It’s a large school district and it has faced academic, political and financial turmoil.

The city also took some heat last year for trying to amend its Head Start program to shift more funding to inner-city schools from rural and suburban districts.

And this year Castro lashed out at SAISD’s leadership for not being more transparent about the possible use of bond money to turn a historic school stadium into a for-profit entertainment venue. The board scrapped those plans.

Conservative bloggers have criticized other media for gushing about Castro but it looks like anybody can fail to check facts or contextualize statistics.

-Francisco Vara-Orta

]]>http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/09/castros-record-on-education-under-attack/feed/2UT regents won’t hear public Longhorn Network updatehttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/08/ut-regents-wont-hear-longhorn-network-update/
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:20:15 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1886Though the University of Texas System regents discussed incentive pay for presidents, building projects and graduation rates for campuses across the system during a two-day meeting this week in Austin, one agenda item was notably benched.

But with distribution deals still pending, Powers said he wasn’t ready to go public with the details.

About four million households across the nation receive the network — the result of a 20-year, $300 million deal between UT and ESPN, university officials said.

But, depending on the provider, some local viewers may not be able to tune in. Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-verse subscribers may be out of luck but those with Grande Communications could get the channel, according to a zip code search of the network’s website.

“Getting the network more widely distributed is a high, high priority for us,” Powers told reporters Thursday.

“We will update the regents appropriately on this,” Powers continued. “Given where we are, a public discussion … is not the right way to conduct business.”

These girls ain’t afraid of no robots. The duo pictured here was among 120 incoming fourth through sixth grade students who learned technological skills at Alamo Colleges’ Space TEAMS summer robotics camps this July and August. Most students came from under-served schools, according to an Alamo Colleges news release.

On Friday, the two showed off the robot they’d built and programmed at St. Philip’s College Southwest Campus. All five Alamo Colleges were able to host camps because of laptops, robotics kits and staff salaries paid for by a $50,000 Rackspace Hosting donation, officials said.

– Jennifer R. Lloyd

]]>http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/08/kids-get-in-gear-with-alamo-colleges-robotics-camp/feed/1Palo Alto College names two finalists for president’s jobhttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/08/palo-alto-college-names-two-finalists-for-presidents-job/
Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:59:39 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1862Alamo Colleges officials have narrowed the hunt for Palo Alto College’s next president to two candidates — one is the college’s interim vice president of academic affairs and the second was previously El Paso Community College’s interim president.

Officials will interview the candidates and hold a public forum for each in late August, according to the college’s website.

The website states that insider and San Antonio native Ruben Michael “Mike” Flores has 19 years of higher education experience. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas at San Antonio, his master’s in the same subject from Illinois State University and his doctorate from the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1999, he joined PAC and led programs for institutional research, strategic planning and resource development. He’s since climbed the ranks, becoming dean of institutional effectiveness and community development, vice president of college services and vice president of student services before taking on his current role. See his resume here.

According to the college’s website, the second candidate, Ernst E. Roberts II earned his bachelor’s in psychology and pre-medicine from West Virginia University, his master’s in psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso and his doctorate in higher education from Texas Tech University. He began teaching in El Paso Community College’s psychology department in 1978 before becoming tenured faculty there and working his way up to his current post as interim president. See his resume here.

The public can join in a forum with Roberts 4:15-5:15 p.m. in Pedernales 109 on Aug. 30. Flores’ forum will be 4:15-5:15 p.m. in the same location on Aug. 31.

– Jennifer R. Lloyd

]]>Area schools rank among Forbes’ top collegeshttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/08/area-schools-rank-among-forbes-top-colleges/
Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:56:57 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1852A handful of area schools — led by Trinity University — scored spots on Forbes’ new America’s Top Colleges list published this week.

]]>Supreme Court sets date for UT affirmative action casehttp://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/2012/07/supreme-court-sets-date-for-ut-affirmative-action-case/
Wed, 25 Jul 2012 23:08:58 +0000http://blog.mysanantonio.com/education/?p=1841The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled October 10 oral arguments for a case that challenges racial preferences in undergraduate admissions at the University of Texas at Austin – a ruling on which has the potential to upend affirmative action admissions policies at the nation’s higher education institutions.

In 2008, Abigail Noel Fisher, a white student from the Houston area, sued UT-Austin in federal court after she was denied admission. The case claims that Fisher would have been admitted if she hadn’t been Caucasian. Though she lost her case in U.S. District Court in Austin and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal, which is based on the Fourteenth Amendment that no state shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

In the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger case, the Supreme Court upheld the use of affirmative action in the University of Michigan’s law school admissions process.

According to the brief submitted to the Supreme Court by Fisher’s representation, the primary question now is this:

“Whether the University of Texas at Austin’s use of race in undergraduate admissions decisions is lawful under this Court’s decisions interpreting the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, including Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003).”

We’ll check in on this as it unfolds. But for now, here are some past stories for more in-depth analysis:

The Association of Texas Professional Educators has honored Francisco Vara-Orta, an Express-News education reporter, with its Alafair Hammett Media Award for newspapers with a daily circulation of 50,000 or greater.

The association presented him with the award at a banquet Monday in Austin. It bills itself as the largest educators’ group in Texas, affiliated with the largest non-union educators’ group nationwide. A panel of seven judges drawn from an ATPE committee based Vara-Orta’s win on three stories it picked from his work in the past year, judging them for clarity of language, neutrality of coverage, and relevance to education in Texas.

The ATPE established the award to honor its first state president and “to recognize media outlets for outstanding support and coverage of public education,” according to a letter from the group.

Trinity University named Lisa Baronio the school’s new vice president for alumni relations and development, according to a news release Monday.

Baronio has most recently been vice president for advancement and director of development at the University of North Texas. She has previously worked for the University of Connecticut Foundation, the Wichita State University Foundation, and the University of Nebraska Foundation.

She will lead fundraising activities as well as oversee relationships with corporations, foundations and alumni, according to the release.

“Lisa brings a wealth of experience in fundraising and is a very accomplished professional,” said Trinity University President Dennis Ahlburg in the release. “Her appointment completes a very strong senior management team.”